Occasionally technical issues arise, either with the patient's mobile device or with the practice's electronic health record vendor. The RPM Connect Center will help the patient or practice resolve these issues, off-loading both of those time-consuming support burdens from physicians and their staff. Practices can also order home medical devices for patients through RPM Connect, which has established volume purchase arrangements with medical device distributors and vendors.
Practices Financially Struggling
Due to COVID-19, more than three-quarters (77%) of primary care practices have reported financial losses, according to a survey series from The Larry A. Green Center in partnership with the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC). The survey also found that 74% are operating under "severe" or "near severe" stress. If these hardships continue and more practices are forced to close, 83% of patients say they would "feel distressed at the loss of a relationship with their doctor."
A mobile-enabled RPM program can generate $60 to $120 per month for each patient monitored. If a practice monitors 200 patients on an ongoing basis, that translates into $12,000 to $24,000 in reimbursements each month to sustain practices during COVID-19—and beyond.
To generate the monitoring data for the RPM Connect program, patients are enrolled in one of CAREMINDr's exclusive virtual Care Journeys for hypertension, diabetes and other chronic or episodic conditions via a mobile app that automatically checks in with patients based on clinical need.
These consistent check-ins and accumulated data will enable practices that are currently delivering care through telehealth video visits to operate more efficiently and improve the productivity of those services while generating more revenue. The plethora of timely recorded data means that physicians will already be up to date on the patient's health status and trends—and can focus on new complaints or concerns during the telehealth appointments.
A Financial Jump-Start is Available
The RPM Connect fee is a small percentage of the practice's monthly reimbursement collected from the billed chronic care management and remote monitoring services. CAREMINDr is also relieving practices from clinician rehiring costs associated with the RPM program by connecting them to resources for a financial advance that can be re-paid gradually over the first year.
"RPM Connect is a financial lifeline for independent physician practices, and it also helps them improve outcomes by increasing care plan adherence through the regular Journey check-ins," Soza said. "We are excited and honored to help support these practices in weathering this ongoing public health and economic storm."
